March 24, 2007

Denver's César Chávez Parade--"Fair Immigration Reform"

**Update--Denver Post staff writer Elizabeth Aguilera inflated crowd estimates (or was given inflated estimates), reporting that there were 1500 marchers, when in fact the video below contains the entire march, from beginning to end, and passes in less than three minutes, and would give a very liberal estimate of perhaps 400-500. Either the police estimates were way off, or parade organizers generously overinflated their numbers.--More from the marchers:

Hundreds of immigrants and their supporters marched from the Auraria campus to West High School Saturday to honor Cesar Chavez, and to call for immigration reform.

Chavez was a farm worker who worked tirelessly for migrant worker's rights.

Organizers of the march renewed their call for a one week economic boycott, saying they want to show how big an impact immigrants and their supporters have on the economy.

"We are human beings," said Pilar Carrillo of the group Rights For All People. "We need to be treated with respect and dignity."

The article, of course, does not specify whether or not the immigrants in the march had legal status--if they did, there would be little reason for the march. Chávez himself held little patience for illegal immigrant workers. And who says that immigrants, legal or no, aren't human beings, and should not be treated with respect and dignity? Everyone here should be treated in this manner, regardless of status. Enforcing the laws of the country is in now way a sign of disrespect or dehumanization, despite what the marchers claim.Denver illegal immigrant activists and open borders advocates called for "fair immigration reform" during their march commemorating César Chávez, to kick off their weeklong state-wide boycott of Colorado businesses to begin tomorrow and end April 1. Turnout was undoubtedly lower due to the constantly falling rain--it was quite chilly--but still about 400 marchers chanted, held signs, made catcalls to police and onlookers. Perhaps learning from the backlash at previous immigration demonstrations, there were almost no Mexican flags, except for one at the very beginning, captured below.

La Raza and the flag of Aztlan were, however, still in attendance, as were several "No human being is illegal" signs.

1 Comments:

The threat on one of their signs "Today we march, tomorrow we vote" is worrisome.

Are they claiming they will vote while still here illegally or are they claiming that their allies in state government will rig the system to grant the vote to criminals who don't belong in a polling place?

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